With a growing population and a large number of aerospace/defense contractors, Northwest Florida is home to a superior talent pool.
Garner Economics completed a workforce and labor analysis in January 2010 for the Northwest Florida region as it relates to VentureCrossings. A brief summary of the analysis follows.
- Population growth is positive in all counties within the Labor Shed and Northwest Florida Region, distinguishing themselves from the 37 percent of all U.S. counties that are presently losing population.
- The pace of population growth in the Northwest Region is also projected to outpace the nation; adding 169,661 persons by year 2014.
- Population growth in the Labor Shed has been driven largely by net Domestic immigration.
- The number of persons with Bachelor’s or Graduate Degrees is projected to increase by 10.9 percent (8,636) in the six-county Labor Shed by year 2014.
- Florida is a right-to-work state. It is one of only 10 US states with a right-to-work provision in its constitution. Florida has one of the lowest unionization rates in the country at approximately 6.4 percent, and the third lowest unionization rate in manufacturing at 2.6 percent.
- The Labor Shed has high specialization in several key occupations in the Aerospace, Defense, & National Security cluster. All of these occupations have high median hourly earnings. Overall thirteen of the key occupations have high forecasted growth, and fifteen have median hourly earnings above the Labor Shed’s area median.
- The military presence plays an important role in delivering highly skilled employees to area businesses. Of individuals leaving the military, many have specific knowledge and experience – and many possess security clearances -- all valuable assets for companies involved in defense and national security activities.
